OWINGS MILLS, MD. — Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers piled clothes and extra gloves into black contractor bags as players cleared out their lockers on Jan. 29, one day after the Ravens suffered a 17-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game.
Like the rest of his teammates, a subdued Flowers was left to reckon with an abrupt end to the season for the top-seeded Ravens, who hosted the AFC title game for the first time in franchise history with a trip to the Super Bowl in the balance. And Flowers had to reckon with his role in one of the game’s pivotal plays.
With the Ravens trailing 17-7 early in the fourth quarter and driving, Flowers caught a pass from Lamar Jackson at the Chiefs’ 6-yard line. He raced toward the end zone and lunged for the goal line.
But just before Flowers crossed the plane of the end zone, Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, whom Flowers had stood over and taunted after making a 54-yard catch a few plays earlier, punched the ball away from Flowers. The fumble bounced into the end zone, and the Chiefs recovered for a touchback.
Flowers led the Ravens with five catches for 115 yards and scored their only touchdown in the game.
After clearing out his locker, Flowers told the media that, “I’m not going to let one moment define me.”
“Everybody texted me that I know,” he added, with the general message being “It’s just a moment. It’s going to make or break you, and I don’t plan on letting it break me.”
Asked how soon Flowers could put the play and the loss behind him and focus on the 2024 season, he said, “I already did.”
Flowers as a rookie was everything the Ravens could have hoped for when they selected him with the No. 22 overall pick out of Boston College. He led the Ravens with 77 catches for 858 yards — both Ravens rookie records — and scored six touchdowns.
He and Jackson established instant rapport, and with his elusiveness and ability to get open and then juke defenders after the catch, Flowers should be well positioned to be the heart of the Ravens’ receiving game again in 2024.
The way this season ended, he said, will drive him toward next year.
“You can have a lot of ups, and then, all of a sudden, you have a down,” he said. “It’s just how you go about it. … I feel like the way I’m going to go about it is I’m going to come back better.”
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox